League of Legends LCS Spring Playoff preview: FlyQuest vs. Golden Guardians

Prediction

So after all that is said and done, who should be favored to win this game? And, by the same token, will they prevail?

In my opinion, FLY should be favored in this series. Statistically, they’ve been the better team all season long and they won their head to head series in the regular season against GGS, taking two of the three games the teams have played.

However, from a matchup perspective, there are a lot of very interesting things that could happen around the top-side of the map to impact the game. Golden Guardians have, easily, their two strongest players – Hauntzer and Froggen – on that half of the map, which also holds FLY’s weakest member – V1per. If Contractz can play around top lane and get Hauntzer rolling over V1per, the game could be a 4v5 come the 15 to 20-minute mark.

Some might suggest that Contractz should make it a priority to camp mid and get Froggen rolling. Unfortunately, although this may set Pobelter behind as we discussed above he has been able to maintain a solid KDA and KP without his team relying on him to be a mega-carry for them. Instead, it would probably be better for Froggen to attempt to draw pressure away from top (where they want to push an advantage) or bot (their weakest lane).

On the other hand, FlyQuest needs to play more bot-centric (ironic since it’s their weakest lane) to try and dissuade pressure from top lane from GGS. Although FLY shouldn’t be relying on WildTurtle and JayJ to be their carries, if they can put Deftly and Olleh behind it will give less support to Hauntzer and Froggen in the later stages of the game.

Ultimately, I don’t think that there is a great path for FlyQuest to win. Their only real lane advantage comes in the jungle. To be sure, that’s a great lane to have the advantage in, but I don’t think Santorin has enough help to snowball advantages quickly enough.

Prediction: GGS 3 – 2 FLY

Disagree with this prediction? Let us know who you’re rooting for in this LCS quarterfinal matchup in the comments below!

The LCS returns with the quarterfinal matchup on Saturday, March 30 at 12:00 PST on http://twitch.tv/riotgames.